


Deal or No Deal

by SilenceIsGolden15



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo 2k18 [15]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Hostage Situations, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Non-Consensual Drug Use, Non-Consensual Touching, Prompt: Villainous Rescue, Protective Pidge | Katie Holt, Protective Shiro (Voltron), Touch-Starved Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-08-05 15:04:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16369880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilenceIsGolden15/pseuds/SilenceIsGolden15
Summary: Keith and Pidge get captured, and that's not even the worst part.





	Deal or No Deal

**Author's Note:**

> This one has like fifteen tropes in it besides the prompt one so enjoy the wild ride

Miscommunication, it would seem, was a major falling down point for Team Voltron. Like right now-- Keith and Pidge were supposed to be escorting an important cargo ship for a species called the Mylrinaar, but apparently no one had  _ told _ the ship that. 

_ It figured,  _ Keith had mused to himself as they were dragged down to the brig,  _ that we’d get captured while I’m paying penance.  _ The only reason he specifically had been singled out for this mission instead of Lance or Hunk was because he was supposed to be making up for missing the last air-show. Still, it wasn’t all bad, he supposed. At least this way he’d be here to protect Pidge.

Who, at the moment, was still trying to convince the blatantly-not-listening guards that it was all a misunderstanding. She kept at it until they dumped them in the cell and locked the door. 

“Ugh, this is ridiculous!” She fumed, already pulling up a screen on her gauntlet. “Shiro said he contacted the ship! I swear to god I’m gonna hack this thing until it’s about as useful as a hunk of scrap metal--”

“Pidge, if you do that we’ll stall out and probably all die.”

“Your point?”

“I don’t want to die?”

“Psh. Coward.”

“How about I radio the Castle, and then we wait for them to sort this whole thing out?”

Pidge huffed, but dismissed her screen anyway and plopped to the floor, crossing her arms indignantly. 

“When did you get all patient and wise?” She grumbled to herself, which Keith chose to take as a compliment as he activated his comms.

“Hey, Allura, can you check back with the Mylrinaar for me and Pidge? I think there’s been a mix up.”

“Of course. One moment.”

One moment turned into more than ten minutes while he and Pidge waited impatiently. After two Pidge got up and began to pace, but Keith kept his back to the wall and distracted himself by drumming his fingers on his arm where they were crossed. 

“What is taking them so long?” 

Keith opened his mouth to answer, only to be nearly thrown off of his feet when the ship jarred violently. Pidge was thrown, stumbling several paces before righting herself with a hand braced against the wall and scowling. 

“What the hell?”

The lights overhead flickered as Keith opened his comm channel. 

“Allura, what’s going on? Allura?” Only static answered, and after another harsh jerk of the ship that sent Pidge tumbling into him and knocking them both to the floor, he felt the slight vibration of the running engine grind to a halt.

“Pidge? Could you--”

“Already on it.” Pidge had her screen pulled up again, running a diagnostic check on the ship. A moment later the lights flickered out entirely, leaving them illuminated only by the green glow of Pidge’s screen. Keith, feeling the familiar prickle of  _ something’s not right _ over his skin, summoned his bayard. 

“Looks like they were being shot at,” Pidge said after a few moments of considering silence. “The right wing is out and the engine’s stalled. I can try to get it up and running again but the wing damage will make it hard for them to evade whoever’s attacking.”

Keith scowled to himself and gripped his bayard tighter. “Probably why they requested an escort to begin with.”

“Yeah.” Pidge hummed and tapped her gauntlet thoughtfully. “I could maybe hack the door open and then we could go see what’s up?”

“Do it,” said Keith, only for them both to freeze when they heard the clangs coming from the end of the hallway. There was a cry and the sound of a door sliding open, and without needing to be told Pidge powered down her screen and pressed herself into the shadows along the walls. Keith did the same. 

Foreboding footsteps echoed down the hall of cells, periodically stopping with the accompanying screech of a door being opened, then closed again. Whoever had boarded the ship was checking each cell in order, and both Paladins held their breath when the steps got closer and the line of light underneath the cell door was blocked. 

Slowly, the door began to open. Keith breathed out and gripped his bayard. 

The person took a single step into the room and Keith had to bite his tongue to prevent himself from gasping aloud. The orange tipped armor and the long white hair gave it away immediately-- after all these months of trying to chase him down, after incurring so much ire with the other Paladins because of his Blade missions, here he was right in front of him.

Prince Lotor. 

Keith’s first instinct was to charge, but he met Pidge’s wide eyes across the room and gritted his teeth, forcing himself to stay still. Lotor stepped back without turning, looked out into the hall, and called for someone, probably one of his generals.

_ Now. _

He sprang, propelling himself from the wall with a burst from his jetpack. But Lotor was expecting it, had seen him coming, and met his attack by grabbing onto the top of his chestplate and flinging him into the wall behind him with pure Altean strength. 

Keith hit it hard, then the floor, but refused to be knocked down. He was just scrabbling to his feet when a huge hand smacked down on his shoulder blade and forced him back down from the metal. Must’ve been the big one, Zethrid, but before he could try and react he heard the crackle of Pidge’s bayard. 

The reaction was instinctive as he tried to lunge away from the general, trying to get to Pidge, but her grip was too strong. Pidge cried out and Keith fought harder, managing to land a single kick before Zethrid yanked off his helmet, tossing it away down the hall, and with a fistful of his hair slammed his head into the floor.

Instantly he was nauseous, his eyesight blurring and ears ringing, but he refused to stay still, even when Zethrid peeled his fingers away from the handle of his bayard and discarded that as well. Then she pulled his head up again and he finally stopped fighting, because there was a purple blur in front of him holding a green one by the back of its neck like a disobedient kitten and he could  _ not  _ let Pidge be hurt.

Pidge struggled, kicking and punching and shouting at the top of her lungs for Lotor to release her right that moment lest she do any number of unnamable things, but the Galra Prince merely smirked with pointed teeth. 

“Zethrid,” he said in that smarmy accent, ignoring Pidge’s shouted threats, “Contact the others; let them know we’ll be leaving now.”

“But sir,” Keith could feel the vibration of her voice through his chest plate as she spoke. Warm blood trailed down his temple. “What about the cargo?”

“Forget it. We’ve got something better.”

* * *

‘Something better’, as it turned out, was leverage. Keith really should’ve seen it coming.

Lotor left the Mylrinaar ship where it was, stalled and stranded, and took Pidge and Keith onto his ship with him. There they were taken up to the bridge and forced to their knees while Acxa used Pidge’s helmet to establish a connection with the Castle. With it gone Keith could get a good look at the claw marks left on her neck from Lotor’s hold, still bleeding sluggishly, and despite his dizziness and the throbbing in his temple he still had it in him to be angry about it.

Pidge was shaking. Whether from fear or rage Keith couldn’t tell, and with his arms bound behind his back he couldn’t do much about it. Dread was knotting in his gut and it only got worse when the connection went through and Shiro’s angry face appeared on the screen. 

Whatever Lotor wanted from them, it wasn’t going to be good.

Before anyone could say anything Shiro was being pushed aside, making way for a furious Allura. Behind them were Coran, Hunk, and Lance, all looking on in various states of worry from muted concern all the way to panic. 

“Princess Allura,” Lotor began, only to be immediately cut off by the princess.

“Lotor, give me back my paladins  _ at once.”  _ Her eyes blazed like blue fire and anyone else would have backed down, but Lotor merely smirked at her rage.

“Now, now, Allura, is that any way to thank me? I rescued your paladins from captivity after all.”

Allura ground her teeth. “We were handling it.”

Keith flexed his fingers behind his back, trying to keep the circulation going, and told himself not to say anything. Lotor hadn’t demanded anything yet; he had to bide his time. 

Lotor chuckled at her. “Fear not, princess, no harm will come to your precious paladins.” 

_ You know, besides what he’s already done.  _

“In fact, as a gesture of good faith, I’ll give one of them back to you for free. I’ll even let you choose which one.”

“And what of the other?” Allura demanded. “What do you want for them?”

“The other, I’m afraid, won’t be up for negotiation just yet,” said Lotor, words tinged with fake regret. “They’ll be… insurance, shall we say, that you’ll stick to your side of the bargain.”

“What bargain?” Shiro inserted himself into the conversation, eyes finding first Keith, then Pidge, before settling back on the prince. “You still haven’t told us what you want.”

“I want Voltron to stand down.” His tone turned hard and unassailable. “I want you to stay off of my back.”

Allura snorted and tossed her head. “You don’t truly believe we’ll cave to that, do you?”

Lotor shrugged. “It doesn’t matter what I believe. Just know that if you don’t comply, the paladin you don’t take home with you will be punished for it.” He paused to let it sink in, let the ripples disperse, before reaching out a clawed hand to the console below the screen. “I will send you coordinates so that you can choose which paladin you’d like to keep. Be there in two vargas.”

With a gesture from the prince Acxa terminated the connection and Keith and Pidge were dragged from the room and into two individual cells. For the next two hours Pidge would chatter about probabilities and which one of them strategically should be chosen to go back to the Castle, a coping tactic if Keith ever saw one, but half an hour in he zoned out.

He’d already made up his mind. 

* * *

The moon they met on was barren and potted with craters, maroon dust kicking up in clouds whenever something moved it. The Castle was already there when Lotor’s ship landed, the three Lions that hadn’t been left with the Mylrinaar ship parked out front in a show of force, and the other denizens of the Castle were already outside when Lotor and his generals marched Keith and Pidge out to meet them. 

They were all furious; Keith could tell that from a distance. All of them held twitching jaws and curled fists, and even Coran was visibly holding himself back when Zethrid and Ezor forced the two of them to their knees in the dirt, thirty feet from their friends. 

Keith’s hands had long since gone numb from being bound but he curled his fingers regardless, wishing for a bayard or any kind of weapon to fight back with, head still aching dully from Zethrid’s hit. He stared at Shiro and hoped he would understand what he was trying to say, but Shiro’s gaze remained locked on Lotor’s face.

“You have two doboshes to choose,” Lotor called to them through his helmet. That was it, there was no preamble, and with an anxious gulp Allura nudged Shiro forward to make their decision. He hesitated for a moment, looking back and forth between Pidge and Keith before Keith finally managed to catch his eye.

Shiro froze when Keith slowly shook his head at him. He narrowed his eyes, but when Keith’s expression didn’t change, he mouthed the words  _ I’m sorry  _ and turned towards Pidge. 

“No!” Pidge shouted as Ezor shoved her forward with a knee. Keith clenched his fists behind his back. “No, Shiro, what are you doing?! We can’t leave Keith here with him!” Shiro approached her and reached down to help her up but she thrashed away from his touch.

“No! I’m not going! I’m not leaving Keith here!”

He couldn’t hear what Shiro said, but his lips said,  _ Pidge please _ as he tried to pick her up again.  _ Trust me _ , he whispered, but Pidge just aimed a kick at his gut and shouted louder. 

“I’m not leaving-- I’m not leaving him--” Her voice broke on a sob and Keith glared at the dirt to keep from letting his own tears show. Eventually, with a wretched expression, Shiro picked Pidge up bodily around her waist and tossed her over his shoulder to take her back to the others. 

Pidge screamed and kicked and squirmed, tears streaming down her cheeks under her helmet, but Shiro’s hold was unbreakable. Keith watched them walk away and tried not to be afraid.

“A pleasure doing business with you,” Lotor sneered to Allura, who gave a wordless snarl in answer and glared. Her eyes found Keith’s and softened, just minutely, and for now Keith wasn’t afraid. They would come for him. He just had to be patient. 

* * *

Pidge refused to go in a pod for the claw marks on her neck. Hunk had to do his best to stick bandages on the gouges from over the back of her chair as she typed away on her holographic screen. She didn’t stop working for a second, not even long enough to wipe the drying tears from her cheeks. 

“I planted a tracker on Lotor’s ship while we were there,” she explained when Shiro asked what she was doing. “I just need to calibrate the Castle’s sensors to pick up the signal and then we can go after him.”

“We’ll need to be careful,” Lance said from somewhere behind her, “He said he’d hurt him if we got too close.”

“I need to get Green back from the Mylrinaar, she has cloaking and can get me in close once we find him.”

“I’m on it,” said Allura without hesitation. She rushed over to her own console to open a connection with the Mylrinaar, Coran walking over to join her, while the rest of them stayed grouped around Pidge.

“Once Green gets me close enough,” her fingers didn’t hesitate for a minute as she spoke, “I can hack into the ship and shut it down. But I’ll need Hunk with me to get me connected to the ship first.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem.” Hunk rested one of his hands on her shoulders and squeezed. She was grateful for the reassurance, but didn’t have time to slow down and thank him for it. She was a tightly wound ball of fear and rage and guilt and if she stopped planning for even a second it would all come tumbling free and  _ she did not have time for that right now.  _

“The rest of you will have to keep Lotor busy, either on a comm call or whatever until I get in. I can make some basic holograms of me and Hunk to stand with you so he doesn’t get suspicious but you can’t let him catch on, understand?”

“We understand, Pidge.” Shiro’s voice was quiet. Underneath was the soft chatter of Allura and Coran, trying to negotiate the return of the Lions with the Mylrinaar. Pidge took a shaky breath, pausing her fingers on the keyboard long enough to make sure her code was correct before stabbing at the enter button. 

“Ok, the tracker should start broadcasting any minute now. Now I just need to get the holograms set up--”

“Pidge.” A hand appeared on her wrist, tugging it away from the screen. A hand belonging to Shiro. “You’re still hurt, you should rest. It’ll be at least a quintant before we can get everything in place and go after him without making Lotor suspicious--”

“No way,” she snapped, wrenching her arm out of Shiro’s grasp. “I’m not stopping until he’s home. Just because you decided it was ok to leave him behind doesn’t mean I have to.”

Shocked silence descended around them, though it took Pidge a full thirty seconds before she realized what she’d said and wilted, fingers coming to a standstill. 

“Shiro, I’m sorry, I just…”

“I know.” He gave her a strained attempt at a smile. “It’s ok. We’ll get him back.”

Her eyes caught the explosion of red on her screen when the tracker activated, and Pidge immediately directed the signal onto the starmap, which radiated across the bridge, tilting as it followed the signal of Lotor’s ship.

“He’s not heading for Central Command,” Shiro observed, “Which gives us some extra time.”

Pidge didn’t answer, she was too busy typing up the code for believable holograms of herself and Hunk. Hers would be easy, she already had it created, but Hunks would take some time. 

_ Hold on, Keith,  _ she thought as determination flared in her chest,  _ We’re coming for you.  _

* * *

Shiro stood before the screen with clammy palms, only minorly comforted by the presence of the others at his back. It had been eighteen vargas (eighteen very long, very stressful vargas) and everything was finally in place to spring Keith’s rescue mission into action. All he had to do was distract Lotor for long enough that Pidge could hack into his ship.

Easy. Right?

With a shaky breath, he opened the connection. It took an excruciating dobosh before the call was accepted, revealing the dark bridge of Lotor’s ship, the prince himself lounging in his throne-like chair at the head of it with his chin resting on one hand. Three of his generals stood behind him, and Keith was nowhere to be seen.

“Paladins,” he greeted in a bored tone, “I thought we agreed you would back down.”

Shiro swallowed before speaking. “We’d like to renegotiate the terms of our agreement.”

Lotor tsked unhappily. “Request denied. Besides, I’m not sure your Black Paladin wants the terms to be changed.” He gave a pompous smirk-- the fear that just leaked down Shiro’s spine must’ve been shown on his face. 

“What does that mean?” Allura saved him from having to come up with a response as she shoved forward to join him at the front of the group, though Lotor’s smirk only grew when the princess came into the mix. 

“I suppose you have a right to know your comrade’s condition,” he said, and that should’ve been a good thing so why was Shiro’s stomach roiling the way it was? Carelessly, Lotor looked over the edge of his chair towards the door. “Zethrid, bring him in.”

Shiro held his breath as the door to the bridge slid open. The largest general stepped into the dim light of the bridge, hauling a limp shape along with her, which Shiro realized was Keith with a lump in his throat. He was conscious at least, but bleary, blinking up at the screen with a dazed expression. His armor had been taken, leaving only his black flight suit, and his arms had been bound in front of him rather than behind. He didn’t seem to have any new injuries, at least, but there had to be something else going on here. 

“Bring him here.”

Zethrid brought him over to Lotor, leaving him slumped on the floor beside the prince’s chair as she stepped back. Lotor took a fistful of Keith’s hair and tilted his head up to face the screen.

Shiro’s prosthetic creaked ominously when he clenched his fists, inspiring anxious looks from Lance and Allura that he ignored. Keith looked so disconnected, so out of it, like his brain wasn’t actually processing any of the information his eyes gave him, and Shiro hated it with surprising intensity. Keith wasn’t meant to look like that.

His gaze locked back on to his friend’s captor when Lotor leaned forward towards the screen, picking up something from under the console. Shiro felt himself go white when he brought it into the frame; it was an injection gun, a device that Shiro was more than familiar with from his time in captivity. A million worst case scenarios arose in his imagination, and based on the smug look Lotor was wearing, he knew exactly what kind of an effect it was having on them.

“What is  _ that?”  _ Lance squeaked, trying in vain to make himself sound angry instead of scared. “What are you doing to him?”

“I was hoping you’d ask. Let me demonstrate.”

He tilted Keith’s head to the side, exposing his neck, and that’s when Keith began to squirm just a bit. 

“No,” he mumbled, though it came out as more of a whine and Shiro’s heart broke, “No, no more, I don’t want to.”

Lotor ignored him and pressed the gun to his throat while Shiro tried his best not to lose his shit. Keith stiffened up when the drug was injected, crinkling up his mouth at the slight pain, only to immediately go lax as soon as the trigger was released. Slowly, as the team watched on in horror, his muscles released their tension and he slumped to the side against Lotor’s chair, eyes closed. 

For half a second Shiro managed to convince himself it was just a sedative. Then with a nauseating grin Lotor reached down to drag his claws through Keith’s hair, and the delusion shattered as his eyes fluttered half open. 

His pupils were blown wide, devouring the iris almost to the edge. The look on his face was disturbingly blissed out, and it only got worse when Lotor pet his hair again, his eyes sagging almost shut and a pleased rumble emanating from his throat, almost like a purr. 

“What did you do?” He found himself whispering, but Lotor pretended not to hear him.

“The poor dear,” the prince cooed, carding his claws oh-so-gently through the strands as Keith purred and pressed up into his hands like he wanted it. “He’s so touch starved. What  _ have  _ you lot been doing to him?”

God, Pidge had to hurry up or Shiro was going to be sick. Dimly he was aware of Lance muttering swears under his breath and Allura with a death grip on his human arm, but he couldn’t comprehend any of it when his focus had narrowed down to only Keith. 

Lotor stopped his ministrations, only to shift his hand and rub his fingertips at a spot behind Keith’s left ear. He just about melted against the chair in response and let out a sound that was an awful lot like a chuff, and Lotor chuckled.

“It’s practically inhumane,” he said, just as the lights on his bridge powered down. There was a second of stunned silence before he spoke again while Shiro’s chest filled up with sickly hope. “I’m afraid that’s all the time we have today, paladins. Remember our agreement.” 

Lotor turned away from the camera, already barking orders at his generals as Zethrid pulled Keith away from him. There was just enough time for them to hear Keith’s desperate whine before the connection closed.

“Lance, Allura, get in your Lions,” Shiro ordered with a trembling voice. “We have to be ready to help Pidge.” The two holograms faded out as they rushed from the room, leaving him and Coran to watch with their hearts in their throats.

“Coran, would the pods negate toxins like that?”

Coran startled as though he hadn’t expected to be spoken to. “Ah, yes, good idea. I’ll go get one ready.”

Then he left as well, allowing Shiro to finally have his panic attack in peace. 

* * *

Pidge was very glad she’d asked Hunk to come along. He got them into the system in record time, he was big and brawny enough to take down Zethrid, and strong enough to carry Keith out once they got him. 

They were back at the Castle, Keith was in a pod, and still she couldn’t stop shaking. She’d long since changed out of her armor and high-tailed it back to the med bay with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders, but no matter how long she sat there and tried to reassure herself that Keith was fine, that they’d gotten him back, that he was safe, the shaking wouldn’t stop. 

“Have you heard him make sounds like that?” She asked of Shiro who was sitting beside her. The whole way back to the Castle Keith had been making strange noises-- whimpers and whines, and even an angry hiss once or twice, like a pissed off cat-- and it scared the bejeezus out of her. 

Shiro shook his head in answer. “Coran--” He had to stop and try again when his voice broke. “Coran said they were Galra sounds.”

“Oh. Is that what the toxin did?”

“No, he- he said that the toxin just made him relaxed.”

“... oh.”

“Yeah.”

Pidge pulled her blanket around herself more securely. “I’m sorry. For snapping at you earlier.”

“It’s alright,” said Shiro, and he actually sounded like he meant it. “Keith would’ve been pissed if I’d chosen him over you.”

“We need to talk to him when he gets out.”

“Yeah. We do.” 

  
  
  
  



End file.
